Hurricane Eye
by Andraste
Summary: During a break in the chaos that is Scott and Jean's wedding, Ororo and Xavier take a moment to talk.


This was prompted by victoria's wedding challenge on the X-Men movie fanfic  
discussion list, although I'm not quite sure it fulfills the criteria. I  
really can't do floofy to save my life, and I don't even like weddings :).  
But still, here you have it.  
  
Disclaimer: Everyone belongs to Marvel Comics and Fox. For once, no-one  
swears at all and I can rate my story a family-safe G.  
  
Hurricane Eye  
  
By Andraste  
  
It turns out that Jubilation Lee is in imminent danger of starvation and,  
no, she cannot *possibly* last the entire thirty minute drive to the  
reception, she has to have food *now*. Ororo Munroe, who is in the grip of  
one of her intermittent cravings for Coca Cola, hasn't got the strength to  
argue; even though she kicked off her stilettos to drive, her feet hurt, her  
gown itches and her head aches under its elaborate coiffure. So she pulls  
the bus over into the parking lot of the nearest 7-11, tells Kitty to grab  
her a drink and rests her forehead against the steering wheel while the kids  
stream out.  
  
Very slowly, she let go of the weather patterns that she'd been holding  
since before dawn. No-one would care if it rained at the wedding  
*reception*, after all, and she was simply too tired to delay the brewing  
showers any longer. Usually, she refrained from manipulating the natural  
cycles for trivial human purposes, but Jean's friendship was far from  
trivial, and the other woman would never have forgiven her if her gown got  
wet.  
  
Ororo was aware that most teachers didn't spend the day of their best friend  
's wedding playing shepherd to two dozen excited teenagers, but Xavier's  
school was a tight knit family as well as an educational institution. There  
had been no question of leaving the older students out of the ceremony, and  
for all their muttering about work intruding into their personal lives Storm  
knew that Scott and Jean would miss their surrogate children while they were  
in Canada.  
  
Usually, the presence of their headmaster in the bus would have calmed the  
kids down even in on a blue moon day like this, but Ororo had noticed some  
time ago that Charles Xavier wasn't *really* in the bus. All the important  
parts of his psyche had done a mental disappearing act sometime between the  
vows and the signing, and now he was staring blankly out the window. She  
wondered where he'd gone.  
  
The bus was a desert island of calm in a difficult day, and Ororo let  
herself relax for the first time in hours, reaching up to brush the tips of  
her tortured hair. She wondered if she could now safely find a mirror and  
dismantle the edifice without offending the bride. "When this is all over,  
remind me to sleep for a month or two" she said, watching the students  
through the greasy plastic windows of the convenience store as they  
demolished the careful stacks and displays like a barbarian horde.  
  
Charles Xavier turned his head and smiled at her sympathetically. "Ororo,  
my dear, if you ever happen to find yourself with child, I want you to  
promise me that you'll elope in order to preserve what's left of my bank  
balance and my sanity." He sounded exhausted but happy, and she couldn't  
help smiling back in spite of her own tiredness.  
  
"I swear, the past couple of weeks have put me off marriage for life. I had  
no idea that organising a simple ceremony would be so complicated - I can't  
imagine how out of hand things would have gotten if it *hadn't* been a  
shotgun wedding."  
  
Xavier chuckled. "I believe that Scott at least had some inkling of the  
impending chaos, and used the baby as an excuse to get it over with less  
than a year's preparation. It makes me grateful that I only *almost* got  
married - I can't imagine surviving the process intact."  
  
The allusion to the professor's failed engagement might have been sad on an  
ordinary day, but right now Ororo could see the funny side. "I can imagine  
Moira McTaggert running a wedding the same way she rules her laboratory.  
You would have been lucky to escape with your life."  
  
"There was talk of me wearing a kilt," Charles said, voice filled with only  
half-joking horror.  
  
Storm laughed. "The things we do for love."  
  
"Yes, indeed." Then the sparkle of humor in his eyes disappeared, and he  
looked serious again. "Tell me, Ororo, *have* you ever considered getting  
married?"  
  
"Do I look four months pregnant?" she asked, trying to keep the  
light-hearted tone of the moment before - she didn't want to have that  
conversation now. He just watched her, silently, until she relented. "Not  
really. I'm so busy with the school, the X-Men . . ." her voice trailed  
off. Even busier now, with Scott and Jean disappearing and a child on the  
way. No free time except for the random minutes that she needed to save for  
herself; with no room for anyone else's disturbances.  
  
"I just . . ." he paused, uncharacteristically lost for words, and turned to  
look at the kids, lined up now in front of a bewildered clerk who looked  
like he wanted to hide under the desk to escape the gown-and-tuxedo-clad  
mob. She wondered if the place Charles vanished to was an alternate  
universe where the auburn-haired woman he took down the aisle was Moira  
Xavier's daughter, and the eagerly awaited baby was his biological  
grandchild.  
  
"I suppose I believe that this job is important," Ororo said thoughtfully,  
breaking the silence. "Sometimes I think about putting it all behind me,  
finding someone to spend my life with, but I feel like I already *have*  
enough children, enough responsibilities. And right now those  
responsibilities involve going to a wedding reception with a bunch of  
teenagers who are about to be on a sugar high, much as I'd like to be  
elsewhere." Sometimes, love was the thing that *stopped* you from getting  
married. "Mind you, if anyone asks me to do the chicken dance they may find  
themselves the victim of a very localized thunderstorm."  
  
Charles smiled again. "We *could* just leave them stranded in the car park  
and drive to Mexico."  
  
For a second, she considered it seriously - she would put her foot on the  
gas and get the hell out of here. They'd stop somewhere before dark to eat  
a meal that involved real food instead of champagne and bite-sized morsels  
on trays, and buy some clothes that didn't make her itch . . .  
  
The moment hangs in the air until Jubilee brakes it by slamming the door  
back and rocketing into her favourite seat, clutching and armload of junk  
food, and John casually tosses a can of cola straight at Ororo's head.  
Storm hears Charles Xavier sigh while she's yelling at them all to settle  
down, and by the time she's done, the telepath has slipped away into his  
state of grace again. Which is probably much further away than Mexico.  
Ororo sighs too, and steels herself to see the evening through. She reaches  
out and switches the wipers on a second before the first drop of rain hits  
the windshield.  
  
The End 


End file.
